Dennis DeYoung (STYX)

bongman

New member
Dennis DeYoung (STYX)

Anyone STYX fans here?
Remember hits like Don't Let It End',
'Mr Roberto', 'Babe', 'The Best of Times',
'Come Sail Away', 'Blue Collar Man' ?

Here is an article I came across:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styx_(band)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styx_(band)#DeYoung.27s_Keyboard_Techniques

DeYoung's Keyboard Techniques
Dennis DeYoung is one of the most influential keyboard players in rock music. Painting like an artist with a very large color palatte, he has colored the recordings of Styx using almost every known type of keyboard one could possibly think of, using his unique classicly influenced playing style.

Often compared to keyboard masters like Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman, his playing provides many similarities including the impressive lightning fast scales & riffs, but it's more melody oriented and straight to the point, resulting in music that is respected & appreciated by musicians, and still appealing to the general radio listening audience at the same time.

DeYoung used a vintage Oberheim 4 voice SEM synthesizer on their landmark Grand Illusion album. He felt his wisely chosen Oberheim sound patches & playing contributed to the unique sound that people associated with Styx, which is probably more important to Styx than even their great guitar solos. [6]. During later tours, he switched to newer more reliable Oberheim models, but he claims nothing sounds as good as the original.

Contributing to this, he would mix the sounds from the Oberheim synthesizer with a Yamaha grand piano (as he did with the keyboard work of "Come Sail Away.") A frequent trademark was to mix different keyboard sounds like this (even adding accordion on many songs, i.e. "All in a Day's Work" and "Boat on the River.") Also, frequently the synthesizer mimics the guitar riff, adding an electronic element to Shaw and Young's guitar signatures (as in "Blue Collar Man.")

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